six feet under

Took a walk and found a gift pile of lemons! When life literally gives you lemons...

... take two, wash them and your hands for 20 seconds, and figure out what to do with them later.

There's really nothing I relish more than eating in bed. And that's largely what this weekend has amounted to. I heated up the last bit of my miso risotto with some extra water to turn it more into a congee. Added a couple spoonfuls of tea egg brine, one of the tea eggs themselves, bonito flakes, roasted seaweed from the Geltor snack stash, and a little dollop of lao gan ma chili oil.

Eaten while adoring Frank's and Frank's roommate's matching tattoos obviously.

These are the things I found rummaging in my pantry boxes:

slivered almonds from another of Laura's meal kits probably,

apricot jam from Morocco years ago... because I take little hotel jams as souvenirs... 

(crossed out the peach jam from Argentina that I thought was also apricot jam - we'll save that for another time)

And then I spent basically the entire day making a biscuit sammich. But it was fucking worth it.

930ish: seared and roasted another giant ass chicken thigh to collect the fats.

1130ish: collected the fats.

Sometime around noon: prepped biscuit dough adapted from Cook's Illustrated recipe

12.5oz flour + 1T baking powder + 1/2t baking soda + 1t salt + packet of almonds + several sprigs of thyme from Davin's friend's community garden + 8T cold butta + 4T chicken fats

and

1T apple cider vinegar + 3/4c water + apricot jam souvy

1230ish: popped both mixtures into the fridge to chill

1245ish: sliced half a red onion and caramelize in 1T chicken fats, removed skin in one giant ass piece and shredded meat from giant ass thigh, added meat to finished caramelized onions

1300ish: removed several outer cabbage leaves from Davin's friend's community garden cabbage, found 5-6 slugs chillin' within, realized that cabbage had been sitting on kitchen table for a couple days, felt a bit freaked out by that but calmly took slugs outside and scooped them into planter box full of dying herbs, washed selected cabbage leaves super thoroughly, ripped them into pieces and charred in more chicken fats

1345ish: preheated oven while making shaggy biscuit dough and shaping into 16 little blocks, brushed more chicken fats on top

1400ish: burned first 8 slightly because got distracted talking to Kyle about unhappy things

1430ish: didn't burn second 8

1445ish: crisped up chicken skin some more to make crispy chicken skin and set off smoke detector in the process BUT finally came up with something happy to share with Kyle

1450ish: assembled biscuit sammiches with charred cabbage leaves, caramelized onion chicken, crispy chicken skin

1455ish: made cocktail of more preserved lemon + thyme sprigs + liqueur 43 + lemon club soda + dash of bitters

1500ish: savored ever sooo slowly while congratulating self and watching Kyle realize he simultaneously loves and hates baking

I mean... dude.

Salivating and heart is palpitating remembering the sight and taste and sound of this chicken skin.

Since the start of quarantine, I've had two friends ask me if I like skin...so clearly I do not profess my love enough. Just so we're clear, I fucking love skin. 😏

I was going to eat more biscuits for dinner until Joyce offered a bowl of her tofu soup meant to feed a village. As long as the village stays 6ft away. So naturally went down the hill to pick that up from her doorstep and bring back to do more eating in bed (with clean shaven legs I might add, wow feels good to get my life together). It's a true blessing to live a block from her in a pandemic.